"Tuesday's match against Birmingham was one of those games where we did enough and created chances but it didn't really happen for us," said the summer signing from West Ham, reflecting on the 1-0 Ricoh Arena defeat.

"There was plenty of passion and determination but just the final third that didn't work for us.

"That will come and I am sure we will be scoring three or four on some days.

"We have just got to keep the belief there.

"We obviously had to go for it at 1-0 down and were therefore getting a bit exposed at the back where they had a few chances, but we still created enough to get a something out of the game.

"Nicklas Bendtner is a good player and certainly a bit of a handful but, his goal was a free header because we were caught on the break and didn't have enough people in position.

"But apart from that, until the second half when we were going for it, they didn't have that many chances, which was good."

As for Gary McSheffrey's return to the Ricoh, he said: "Gary was quite quiet but I think that was because we did well.

"We pushed forward and that meant he had to defend, which he doesn't want to do.

"But you need goals to get results and unfortunately we didn't get them.

"The gaffer said we lost with our boots on, which I think is fair.

"We definitely played some good football, especially in the second half when Hutch helped us out by getting on the ball well, and then from there we created a few chances, but it wasn't to be."

City suffered a number of casualties on Tuesday night, not least Stephen Hughes who suffered a broken nose and Dele Adebola who was concussed after a clash of heads.

"We have got a tough game on Monday at Stoke," he said.

"They have scored a lot of goals of late so it will be a test for the defenders as well as all round the pitch because Stoke have some good players.

"As long as we try to keep it tight at the back, hopefully we will get the goals."